Reiterating that India continues to be in the local transmission phase despite the country registering a spike from 100 to 1,000 cases in 12 days, the Union Health Ministry on Monday said India’s precautionary and early lockdown is proving to be a step in the right direction.
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India registered more than 60 new cases and four deaths in the past 24 hours, with a total of 1,071 cases and 29 deaths so far, the Ministry said, clarifying that no orders had been passed to “conduct large scale disinfection of people but protocol has been put in place for sanitising large public spaces, etc.”
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Joint Secretary in the Ministry Lav Agrawal told the press that the growth graph of COVID-19 cases shows that India had taken 12 days to go from 100 to 1,000 cases.
“This graph in developed countries with less population and better facilities had risen anywhere between 3,000 to 8,000 cases starting from the same line and in this 12-day initial period. India is seeing this result because of early measures of isolation and lockdown. The take away from this is that we are on the right path and that we should stay on this. But this is a daily battle and non-compliance by even a single individual can put us back,” he said.
According to reports from State Health Departments, there are 1,284 confirmed cases nationwide, with 1,139 active cases.
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The number of deaths rose to 37 on Monday, with two fatalities reported from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and one each from West Bengal and Punjab. Kerala added 32 new cases in its tally of 234; 12 new cases took Maharashtra’s tally to 215.
With seven evacuees from Iran testing positive, the number of cases in Rajasthan rose to 69. Tamil Nadu saw a sharp spike with 17 new cases.
Local transmission
When asked about a government document that said: “India in the current phase of COVID-19 pandemic is showing local transmission and limited community transmission”, Mr. Agarwal said, “We should use the word community in a limited context. In fact the government will be the first to announce that the infection has entered the next phase because we would need a heightened level of preparation and cooperation from the general public. Technically we continue to be in the local transmission phase.”
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He, however, confirmed that India is seeing “a small percentage of asymptomatic individuals”.
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Mr. Agarwal, however, refused to answer a question about a possible extension of the 21-day lockdown.
Globally, the COVID-19 numbers have surpassed 634,000, and the death toll is close to 30,000, according to the World Health Organisation.
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Speaking about hot-spots in India, Mr. Agarwal refused to name specific locations and only listed the protocol to create a buffer zone and conduct house-to-house checks
Giving details of the number of samples tested so far Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) R. Gangakhedkar, said, “So far 48,432 tests have been conducted; 115 ICMR labs are functional and 47 private labs approved. 1,334 people have been tested in three days.”
Speaking about the case of a doctor’s death after taking hydroxycloroquine as prophylactic, Dr Gangakhedkar said, “This is a very difficult proposition that he had a heart attack after two doses.”
Joint secretary in the Home Ministry Punya Saila Srivastava said the migrant workers status was now stable and all States are making provisions for food and shelter.
